to be bred in the bottom of the Sea like to a thick mud A. The best that is in the World comes from the Island Mauritius And is commonly found after a Storm The Hogs can smell it at a great distance who run like mad to it and devour it commonly before the people come to it It is held to be a Zeequal viscosity which being dried by the Sun turns to such a Consistence as is dayly seen Myavines father Isaac Vigny a Frenchman in Oleron hath been a great Traveller in his time and he told me he sailed once in his youth through so many of these Zeequalen as would have loaded ten thousand Ships the like having been never seen his Curiosity did drive him to take up some of those which being dried in the Sun were perceived to be the best Ambergreece in the World I have seen one piece which he kept for a Memento and another piece he sold for 1300 l. Sterling This being discovered they set sail to the same place where these Zeequelen appeared and crusing there to and fro for the space of six weeks but could not perceive any more Where this place is scituated I do not know but Monsieur Gentillot a French Captain in Holland can tell you Q. 24. To enquire of the Divers for Pearls staying long under water whether they do it by the assistance of anything they carry with them or by long and often use get a trick of holding their breath so long at the Isle of Baharen neer Ormus A What they do at Baharen is unknown to me but since we have had Tute Corein in Ceylon where very good Pearls grow I hear the Divers use no Artifice The manner is thus at a set time of the year Merchants come from all parts as likewise Divers with their Boats each Boat hath a certain quantity of square Stones upon which Stones the Divers goe down and give a token to their Companions when they think it time to be hal'd up each Stone payes tribute to the Company The Oyster or Shell-fish is not immediately open'd but laid on heaps or in holes at the Sea-side When the Diving time is ended the Merchants come and buy these heaps according as they can agree not knowing whether they shall get any thing or no. So that this is a meer Lottery This Pearl-fishing is dangerous being the Divers commonly make their Will and take leave of their Friends before they tread the Stone to go down Q. 25. Whether Cinnamon when first gathered hath no tast at all but acquires its taste and strength by fifteen dayes sunning And whether the Bark be gathered every two years in the Isle of Ceylon A. The Cinnamon Tree as it groweth is so fragrant that it may be smelt a great way off before it be seen And hath even then a most Excellent taste so that by Sunning it looseth rather than acquires any taste or force the Tree being pill'd is cut down to the root but the young Sprigs after a year or two give the best and finest Cinnamon Q. 26. To learn if it may be what Art the Master-workmen of Pegu have to add to the colour of their Rubies A. Not answered Q. 27. To inquire after and get if possible some of the Bones of the Fish called Caballa which are so powerful in stopping blood A. 'T is done and they shall follow with the Dutch Ships Q. 28. Whether at Hermita a Town in Ethiopia there are Tortoises so big that Men may ride upon them A. It is reported that there be extraordinary great ones there I have seen some Sea-Tortoises here of four foot broad in oval form very low leg'd but of that strength that a man may stand on one The manner of catching them is to turn them with a Fork upon their backs Q. 29. Whether there be a Tree in Mexico that yields Water Wine Vinegar Oyl Milk Honey Wax Thread and Needles A. The Cokos Trees yields all this and more the Nut while it is green hath very good Water in it the Flower being cut drops out great quantity of liquor called Sury or Taywack which drank fresh hath the force and almost the taste of Wine grown sowr is very good Vinegar and distilled makes very good Brandy or Areck The Nut grated and mingled with water tasteth like Milk pressed yields very good Oyl Bees swarm in these Trees as well as in other Thread Needles are made of the leaves and tough twigs Nay to add something to this description in Amboina they make Bread of the body of the Tree the leaves serve to thatch houses and likewise sails for their Boats Q. 30. Whether about Java there be Oysters of that vast bigness as to weigh three hundred weight A. I have seen a Shell-fish but nothing like an Oyster of such a bigness the Fish being salted and kept in pickle afterwards boyled tasteth like Brawn in England and is of an horney substance Q. 31. Whether neer Malacca there be found in the Gall of certain Swine a Stone esteemed incomparably above Bezoar A. In that Country but very seldome there grows a Stone in the Stomack of a Porkapine called Pedro Porco of whose virtue there are large descriptions and the Hollanders are now so fond that I have seen 400. Dollars of â— given for one no bigger than a Pidgeons Egg There is sophistication as well in that as Bezoar Musk c. and every day new falshood so that I cannot well set down here any rules but must be judged by experience A false one I send you which doth imitate very near virtue the true one but is a great deal bigger and of another colour As for the Observations desired of the Islands Saint Helena and Ascension they may be better made by the English East-India men which commonly touch at both places but the Hollander never or very seldome Q. 32. Whether it be winter at the East-side of the Mountain Gates which comes from the North to Cape Comoryn whilst it is summer on the West-side and Vice versa A. Not only there but likewise on the Island of Zeylon Q. 33. In what Country Lignum Alloes is found whether it be the Wood of a Tree or the Root of a Tree How to know the best of the Kind A. Lignum Alloes Lignum Paradisi Calamba are Synonyma the same And the same Wood comes most from Cambodia and Siam but they say it it brought by the people of Lawlan a Country about Cambodia whence Musk and Benzoin and most Aromada come it is easily distinguished from other Wood by its strong scent and richness of Balm in it which appears in its blackness it is of great Value and hard to be gotten here The rest of the Queries are not answered because the time is short since I received them and especially because I cannot meet with any one that can satisfie me and being unsatisfied my self I cannot nor will obtrude any thing upon you which may hereafter prove
Menstruums out of fermenting Liquors out of Water and other Liquors by heat and by exhaustion of the returning of such Air into the Water again of the vanishing of Air into Water exhausted of Air of the maintaining and increasing a Fire by such Airs of the fitness and unfitness of such Air for respiration of the use of Air in breathing Experiments of keeping Creatures many hours alive by blowing into the Lungs with Bellows after that all the Thorax and Abdomen were open'd and cut away and all the Intrails save Heart and Lungs remov'd of reviving Chickens after they have been strangled by blowing into their Lungs to try how long a man can live by expiring and inspiring again the same Air to try whether the Air so respired might not by several means be purify'd or renew'd to prove that it is not the heat nor the cold of this respired Air that choaks Experiments of the respiring of Animals in Air much rarify'd and the fatal effects of the long continuance of several Animals very well in Air as much condens'd as it will be under water at two hundred fathoms deep that is about eight times of the quantity of fresh Air requisite for the life of a respiring Animal for a certain space of time of making Air unfit for respiration by satiating it by suffering Candles or Coals to burn in it till they extinguish themselves Experiments of including living Animals and kindled Coals and Candles in a large Glass to observe which of them will be first extinguish'd of a mans living half an hour without any inconvenience in a Leaden Bell at divers fathoms under water of the Quantity of Air respir'd at once by a Man of the strength a Man has to raise Weights by his breath Experiments of the swelling of an Arm put into the rarifying Engine by taking off the pressure of the Ambient Air of the swelling of Vipers and Frogs upon taking off the pressure of the Ambient Air of the life and free motion of Fishes in Water under the pressure of Air eight times condens'd of Insects not being able to move in exhausted Air of the resistance of Air to bodies mov'd through it of the not growing of Seeds for want of Air of the growing of Plants hung in the Air and of the decrease of their weight of the living of a Cameleon Snakes Toads and divers Insects in a free Air without food of conveying Air under Water to any depth of condensing Air by Water and by the expansion of freezing Water of the swelling of Lungs in the rarifying Engine of the velocity and strength of several Winds The third kind are those which have been made about the substance and properties of Water Such are Experiments about the Comparative Gravity of Salt Water and fresh and of several Medicinal Springs found in this Nation of the differing weight of the sea-Sea-water in several Climats and at several Seasons of the weight of distill'd-Distill'd-water snow-Snow-water May-dew rain-Rain-water spring-Spring-water of augmenting the weight of Liquor by dissolving Salts of the greater thickness of such Water at the bottom than at the top of weighing ascending and descending Bodies in Water of the pressure of the Water at several depths under its surface Experiments of the heat and cold of the Water at several depths of the Sea of propagating sounds through the Water of sounding the depth of the Sea without a line of fetching up Water from the Bottom of the Sea of fetching up Earth Sand Plants from the bottom of the Sea Experiments of the resistance of Water to Bodies mov'd on its surface of several Figures and by several degrees of force of the resistance of Water to Bodies mov'd through its substance ascending and discending of the expansion and condensation of Water by heat and cold of the condensation of Water by several wayes of pressure of converting Water into a vapourous Air lasting sometimes in that form the Torricellian Experiment try'd with Water in a Glass-cane thirty six and forty foot high in a leaden Tube also with a Glass at the top the same try'd with Oyl and other Liquors Experiments of the rising of Water in small Tubes and many others about its congruity of filtration or of the rising of Water to a great height in Sand c. of the swimming of Fishes of Waters being able to penetrate through those Pores where Air will not of opening bellows at a depth under water and blowing up Bladders to find the pressure of the Water of Water not subsiding in a high Glass-cane upon removing the ambient pressure after it had been well exhausted of the Air-bubbles that lurk'd in it of forcing Water out of a Vessel by its own vapours Experiments of the different weight and refraction of warm Water and cold of the passing of Water through the coats of a Mans stomach of the living of Fish in Water the Air being exhausted of closing up a Fish in a Glass of water of the dying of Fishes in Water upon taking off the pressure of the Air in the rarifying Engine of Hydrostaticks and making a Body sink by pouring more water upon it of raising Water above its Standard by sucking of the subsiding of Water in the stem upon putting the Bolt-head into warm water of the shrinking of Water upon cooling The fourth kind are about Mines Metals Oars Stones c. Such as Experiments of Coppelling made at the Tower of dissolving many Salts in one Liquor of the Oculus Mundi of Rusma of the Tenacity of several Metals examin'd by weights of the rarefaction and condensation of Glass of the volatizing Salt of Tartar with burnt Allom with Vinegar and Spirit of Wine on the Bononian Stone on Diamonds of their shining by rubbing on Copper-oar of the distillation of Coal of refining several kinds of Lead-oar of extracting a much greater quantity of Silver out of that Oar than is commonly done of several wayes of reducing Letharges into Lead of changing Gold into Silver Experiments Magnetical of the best form of capping Loadstones of the best forms of Needles of several lengths and bignesses of various wayes of touching Needles on the Loadstone of making the same Pole of the Loadstone both attract and chase the same end of the Needle without touching it to find the variation of the Loadstone here at London Experiments with the dipping Needle of the extraordinary strength in proportion to its bulk of a small Loadstone to measure the strength of the Magnetical attractive power at several distances from the Stone to examine the force of the attractive power through several Mediums as Water Air Wood Lead and Stone to divert the attractive power by interposing Iron to find the directive virtue of the Loadstone under water Experiments to manifest by the help of Steel-dust the lines of the Directive virtue of the Loadstone to be oval in a contrary Position to what Des Cartes Theory makes them to manifest those lines of Direction by
5. Whether it be true that upon the Coast of Achin in Sumatra the Sea though it be calm groweth very high when no rain falls but is smooth in rain though it blows hard A. Sometimes but not alwayes the Reason is this that Achin lieth at the very end and corner of Sumatra as may be seen by the Map open in the main Ocean so that the Sea comes rowling from the Cabo de bona Esperanca and all that way unto it and it is natural to the Sea to have a continual motion let it be never so calm which motion cannot be called a Wave neither have I any English for it at present but in Dutch we call it Deyninge van Dee Zee and the calmer it is the higher the natural motion of the Sea elevates very slowly the water so that I have seen Ships and Junks tossed by these Deynings in a calm when there is scarce wind enough to drive a bubble that a man can scarce stand in them some say this motion proceeds from boysterous winds at Sea far distant That rain beats down the swelling of these Deynings especially if it be vehement proceeds naturally from its weight and impetuosity And it is observed that about Achin the Mountains are high and steep from whose tops boysterous called Travant come suddenly like a Granado cast falling into the Sea are accompanied commonly with a great shower of rain and last not above a quarter or at the most half an hour which is too short a time to disturb the Sea or to cause a contrary motion in it being shelter'd by these Mountains Q. 6. Whether in the Island of Sambrero which lyeth Northwards of Sumatra about eight degrees Northern latitude there be found such a Vegetable as Master James Lancaster relates to have seen which grows up to a Tree shrinks down when one offers to pluck it up into the ground and would quite shrink unless held very hard And whether the same being forcibly pluck'd up hath a worm for its root diminishing more and more according as the Tree groweth in greatness and as soon as the Worm is wholly turned into the Tree rooting in the ground and so growing great And whether the same plucked up young turns by that time it is dry into a hard Stone much like to white Corral A. I cannot meet with any that ever have heard of such a Vegetable Q. 7. Whether those Creatures that are in these parts plump and in season at the full Moon are lean and out of season at the new find the contrary at the East-Indies A. I find it so here by Experience at Batavia in Oysters and Crabs Q. 8. What ground there may be for that Relation concerning Horns taking root and growing about Goa A. Inquiring about this a Friend laught and told me it was a Jeer put upon the Portuges because the Women of Goa are counted much given to lechery Q. 9. Whether the Indians can so prepare that stupifying Herb Datura that they make it lye several dayes months years according as they will have it in a mans body without doing him any hurt and at the end kill him without missing half an hours time A. The China men in this place have formerly used Datura as a Fermentation to a sort of Drink much beloved by the Souldiers and Mariners called Suykerbier which makes them raging mad so that it is forbidden strictly under the penalty of a great pain to make use of the same Q. 10. Whether those that be stupified by the juyce of this Herb Datura are recovered by moystning the soles of their feet in fair water A. No. For I have seen divers Souldiers and Mariners fall into the Rivers and Ditches being stupified by their drink aforesaid who were rather worse after they were taken out than better Q. 11. Whether a Betel hath such contrariety to the Durion that a few leaves thereof put to a whole shopful of Durions will make them all rot suddenly And whether those who have surfeited on Durions and thereby overheated themselves do by laying one leaf of Betel cold upon the heart immediately cure the Inflammations and recover the Stomach This Betel being thought to preserve those Indians from Tooth-ach loose Gums and Scurvey and from stinking breath some of it is desired to be sent over with the fruit Areica and the other Ingredients and manner of preparing it A. I have seen that Betel leaves in a short time will spoil a Durion take away his nature and turn a fat creamy substance into water Commonly those that eat great quantities of Durions eat a Betel afterwards as a Correctorium but of laying a leaf upon the heart I have never heard As for the other qualities of the Betel I believe they are good if not abused as most of the Indians do who never are without it in their mouths no not sleeping which corrodes their teeth and makes them as black as Jet It draws from the head the Flegmatick humours which are voided by spitting so we use it but the Indians swallow down their spittle together with the juyce of the Betel and the Areica The manner of preparing it is easie being nothing but the Nut leaf and Calx viva of which last each one adds as much as pleaseth his palat There is a sort of Fruit called Sivgboa which is used with the Areica instead of Betel and can be dried and transported as well as the Areica and hath the same force but a great deal more pleasant to the palate Q. 12. Whether the Papayas that beareth fruit like a Melon do not grow much less bear fruit unless male and female be together A They grow as I have seen two in the English-house at Bantam and bear little fruit which never comes to perfection but if the male and female be together the one bears great Fruit the other nothing but Flowers Q. 13 Whether the Arbor Triste sheds its Flowers at the rising of the Sun and shut them again at the setting of the Sun And whether the distill'd water thereof called Aqua di Mogli by the Portugals may not be transported to England And whether at the rising of the Sun the leaves of the Arbor Triste drop off as well as the flowers A. There is two sorts of the Arbor Triste one is called by the Portugals Triste de Die the other Triste de Nocte the one sheds his Flowers at the Rising the other at the Setting of the Sun but neither of them shed their leaves There is no body here that understands the distilling of waters some say this Aqua di Mogli is to be had at Malaca for which I have writ and shall send it if procurable Q. 14. Whether the Arbor de Rays or Tree of Root propagate it self in a whole Forrest by shooting up and letting fall roots from its branches into the ground that spring up again and so on A. This is true And we have divers trees about Batavia and the
like adjacent Islands above fifty foot in the diameter Q. 15. What kind of fruit is that in Jucca which grows immediately out of the Trees body and is said to breed the Plague if eaten immoderately A. It is a fruit much like to Durion which groweth in the same manner hath a faint smell and sweet waterish taste for my part I do not affect them The Plague is a Disease unknown amongst the Indians but this fruit as most others do immoderately eaten causes a Dirthea which easily degenerates to a Tenasmus by us called Peirsing a dangerous Sickness and worse than the Plague Q. 16. What Poyson is it the King of Macassar in Colebees is said to have particular to himself which not only kills a man immediately that hath received the slightest Wound by a Dart dipt therein but also within half an hours time make the flesh touched with it so rotten that it will fall like Snivel from the Bones and whose poysonous Steam will soon fly up to a Wound made with an unpoysoned Dart if the Blood be only in the slightest manner touch'd with a Dart infected with the Poyson What certainty there is of this Relation A. That there is such a Poyson in this Kings possession is most certain but what it is no Christian hitherto ever knew right By the Government of Arnold De Flamminge Van Outshorn divers have been tortured yea killed Some say it is the Gall of a Venemous Fish Others say it is a Tree which is so Venemous that those who are condemned to die fetch the Poyson but not one of an hundred scape death the Roots of this Tree are held an Antidote against the Poyson but our People when we had War with Macassar found no Antidote like to their own or others Excrements as soon as they felt themselves wounded instantly took a dose of this same which presently provoked to vomit and so by repulsion as I perceive and sweat freed the Noble parts from further Infection That a Wound should be infected by this Poyson though inflicted by an impoysoned Weapon is not strange to those who study Sympathy And set belief in that much renowned Sympathetical Powder of Sir Kenelme Digby Yet such Effects of the Macassars Arts are unknown to us Q. 17. Whether in Pegu and other places in the East-Indies they use a Poyson that kills by smelling and yet the Poyson smell is hardly perceived To this no Answer was return'd Q. 18. Whether Camphire comes from Trees What kind of Trees they are in Borneo that are said to yield much excellent Camphire as that one pound thereof is said to be worth an hundred of that of China and other places A. Camphire comes from Trees of an Excessive bulk as you may see by the Chests which comes from Iappan into Europe made of the same wood of Burneo it comes likewise from Trees which are said to stand in Sandy Ground And drop like a Gum. But of late an Experiment is found in Ceylon that the Root of a Cinnamon Tree yields as good Camphire as either Iappan or China of which I shall send you a pattern being now to be had at present here as also an Oyl extracted from the same Roots which reserves something of the Cinnamon smell but may be the fault of the Distiller Q. 19. Whether some of that rare Wood called Palo d' Aquila and Calamba of an Extraordinary value even in the Country where it groweth as in Siam about San and Patan and in Cochinchina may not be brought over as also some of those strange Nests of Cochinchina made by Birds upon Rocks of a certaine viscous froth of the Sea which Nests grown dry and hard are said to become transparent and when dissolved in Water serves excellently to season all their Meats A. If the Question be made whether these things may be brought over by permission of the Company I answer as first that their Laws forbid the transportation of all whatsoever whether necessary to the conservation of Health or acquisition of Wealth or Rarities c. but if the Querie be concerning the nature and substance of the Wood and Nests they are transportable and can subsist without decaying many years Lignum Aquilae is far inferiour to Calamba though not easie to be discerned the pound of Calamba is worth in Iappan thirty and sometimes forty pounds Sterling the best comes from Cambodia and seems to be the pith of the Tree Aquilae in Iappan it is used as Incence to perfume Cloth and Chambers It is held for a great Cordial and commonly used by that Nation as also the Chineses In Defectione spirituum vitalium as in Paralisi Nervorum laxatione impotentia They rub it with Aqua Cynamoni upon a Stone till the substance of the Wood is mixt sicut pulpa with the Water and so drink it with Wine or what they please The Birds-nests are a great Restorative to Nature and much used by the lecherous Chinaes Q. 20. Whether the Animal call'd Abados or Rhinoceros hath teeth claws flesh blood and skin yea his very dung and water as well as his horns Antidotal And whether the horns of those beasts be better or worse according to the food they live upon A. Their horns teeth claws and blood are esteemed Antidotes and have the same use in the Indian Pharmacopeia as the Therieca hath in ours the flesh I have eaten is very sweet and short some dayes before the Receipt of your Letter I had a young one no bigger than a Spaniel Dog which followed me whereever I went drinking nothing but Buffulo milk lived about three weeks then his teeth began to grow and got a looseness and died 'T is observed that Children especially of European Parents at the breaking out of their teeth are dangerous sick and commonly die of the scouring in these parts His skin I have caused to be dryed and so present it unto you since fate permits not to send him you living such a young one was never seen before The food I believe is all one to this Animal being that they are seldome seen but amongst withered Branches Thistles and Thorns so that the horn is of equal vertue Q. 21. Whether the falsifying of the China Musk is not rather done by mixing Oxen and Cows Livers dried and pulverized with some of the putrified and concrete flesh and blood of the China Musk-cat than by beating together the bare flesh and blood of this Animal c. Not answered Q. 22. Whether there be two sorts of Gumlack one produced from a certain winged Ant the other the Exudation of a Tree The first had in the Islands of Suachan the last in the Kingdome of Martaban A. We know of none but such as drop from Trees and comes from divers places in Siam Cambodia Pegu c. Q. 23. If the best Ambergreece be found in the Islands Socotora and Aniana neer Java To endeavour the getting of more certain knowledge what it is being reported
fabulous but shall still serve you with truth A METHOD For making a History of the Weather By Mr. HOOK FOr the better making a History of the Weather I conceive it requisite to observe 1. The Strength and Quarter of the Winds and to register the Changes as often as they happen both which may be very conveniently shewn by a small addition to an ordinary Weather-clock 2. The Degrees of Heat and Cold in the Air which will be best observed by a sealed Thermometer graduated according to the Degrees of Expansion which bear a known proportion to the whole bulk of Liquor the beginning of which gradation should be that dimension which the Liquor hath when encompassed with Water just beginning to freeze and the degrees of Expansion either greater or less should be set or marked above it or below it 3. The Degrees of Dryness and Moisture in the Air which may be most conveniently observed by a Hygroscope made with the single beard of a wild Oat perfectly ripe set upright and headed with an Index after the way described by Emanuel Magnan the conversions and degrees of which may be measured by divisions made on the rim of a Circle in the Center of which the Index is turned round The beginning or Standard of which Degree of Rotation should be that to which the Index points when the beard being throughly wet or covered with Water is quite unwreathed and becomes straight But because of the smalness of this part of the Oat the cod of a wild Vetch may be used instead of it which will be a much larger Index and will be altogether as sensible of the changes of the Air. 4. The degrees of Pressure in the Air which may be several wayes observed but best of all with an Instrument with Quicksilver contrived so as either by means of water or an Index it may sensibly exhibit the minute variations of that Action 5. The constitution and face of the Sky or Heavens and this is best done by the eye here should be observed whether the Sky be clear or clouded and if clouded after what manner whether with high Exhalations or great white Clouds or dark thick ones Whether those Clouds afford Fogs or Mists or Sleet or Rain or Snow c. Whether the under side of those Clouds be flat or waved and irregular as I have often seen before thunder Which way they drive whether all one way or some one way some another and whether any of these be the same with the Wind that blows below the Colour and face of the Sky at the rising and setting of the Sun and Moon what Haloes or Rings may happen to encompass those Luminaries their bigness form and number 6. What Effects are produc'd upon other bodies As what Aches and Distempers in the bodies of men what Diseases are most rife as Colds Fevours Agues c. What putrefactions or other changes are produc'd in other bodies As the sweating of Marble the burning blew of a Candle the blasting of Trees and Corn the unusual sprouting growth or decay of any Plants or Vegetables the putrefaction of bodies not usual the plenty or scarcity of Insects of several Fruits Grains Flowers Roots Cattel Fishes Birds any thing notable of that kind What conveniences or inconveniences may happen in the year in any kind as by flouds droughts violent showers c. What nights produce dews and hoar-frosts and what not 7. What Thunders and Lightnings happen and what Effects they produce as souring Beer or Ale turning Milk killing Silk-worms c 8. Any thing extraordinary in the Tides as double Tides later or earlier greater or less Tides than ordinary Rising or drying of Springs Comets or unusual Apparitions new Stars Ignes fatui or shining Exhalations or the like These should all or most of them be diligently observed and registred by some one that is alwayes conversant in or neer the same place Now that these and some other hereafter to be mentioned may be registred so as to be most convenient for the making of comparisons requisite for the raising Axioms whereby the Cause or Laws of Weather may be found out It will be desirable to order them so that the Scheme of a whole Moneth may at one view be presented to the Eye And this may conveniently be done on the pages of a Book in folio allowing fifteen dayes for one side and fifteen for the other Let each of those pages be divided into nine Columes and distinguished by perpendicular lines let each of the first six Columes be half an inch wide and the three last equally share the remaining of the side Let each Colume have the title of what it is to contain in the first at least written at the top of it As let the first Colume towards the left hand contain the dayes of the Moneth or place of the Sun and the remarkable hours of each day The second the Place Latitude Distance Ages and Phaces of the Moon The third the Quarters and strength of Winds The fourth the Heat and Cold of the season The fifth the Dryness and Moisture of it The sixth the Degrees of pressure The seventh the faces and appearances of the Sky The eighth the Effects of the Weather upon other bodies Thunders Lightnings or any thing extraordinary The ninth general Deductions Corollaries or Syllogisms arising from the comparing the several Phaenomena together That the Columes may be large enough to contain what they are designed for it will be necessary that the particulars be expressed with some Characters as brief and compendious as is possible The two first by the Figures and Characters of the Signs commonly us'd in Almanacks The Winds may be exprest by the Letters by which they are exprest in small Sea-Cards and the degrees of strength by 1 2 3 4 c. according as they are marked in the contrivance of the Weather-cock The degrees of Heat and Cold may be exprest by the Numbers appropriate to the Divisions of the Thermometer The Dryness and Moisture by the Divisions in the rim of the Hydroscope The pressure by Figures denoting the height of the Mercurial Cylinder But for the faces of the Sky they are so many that many of them want proper names and therefore it will be convenient to agree upon some determinate ones by which the most usual may be in brief exprest As let Cleer signifie a very cleer Sky without any Clouds or Exhalations Checker'd a cleer Sky with many great white round Clouds such as are very usual in Summer Hazy a Sky that looks whitish by reason of the thickness of the higher parts of the Air by some Exhalation not formed into Clouds Thick a Sky more whitened by a greater company of Vapours these do usually make the Luminaries look bearded or hairy and are oftentimes the cause of the appearance of Rings and Haloes about the Sun as well as the Moon Overcast when the Vapours so whiten and thicken the Air that the Sun cannot
Common of Lancashire and elsewhere of Divers and Diving their habit their long holding their breath and of other notable things observ'd by them Relations of the Effects of Earthquakes and the moving and sinking of Earths of deep Mines and deep Wells of the several layers of Earth in a Well at Amsterdam of the shining Cliffs in Scotland of the layers of Earth observ'd in divers Clifts of Screw-Stones Lignum Fossile Blocks buried in Exeter River Trees found under ground in Cheshire Lincolnshire and elsewhere of a Coal-Mine wrought half a mile from the shore under the Sea of the fatal effects of damps on Miners and the ways of recovering them Relations of the extraordinary strength of some small Loadstones taking up above 150. times their own weight of several English Loadstones of the variation of the Loadstone observ'd in two East-India voyages and other places of the growing of Pebbles inclos'd in a glass of water of several excellent English clays of Gold found in little lumps in a Mine in England of the moving sands in Norfolk Relations about refining Lead and Tin-Oar of hardning Steel so as to cut Porphyry with it and softning it so much as to make it easie to be wrought on of impregnating Lead-Oar with Metal after it has been once freed of Petrify'd Teeth and a Petrifi'd humane foetus of several wayes of splitting Rocks of living Muscles found in the midst of Rocks at Legorn of the way of making Quick-silver of things observable at the bottom of the Sea of a soft Metal which hardens after it has taken off the Impression and the way of reducing such impressions into as small a proportion as is desir'd Relations about Agriculture of ordering of Vines of the setting and planting of Trees several wayes of Elms growing from chips of new Trees sprung from rotten roots of several kinds of Trees growing one out of another and in the place of others of the best wayes of pruning of making a kind of Silk with Virginia Grass of a kind of Grass making stronger Ropes than the common Hemp of a new way of ordering Mulberry Trees in Virginia of a Locust Tree Bow standing bent six months without loosing its Spring of a way of improving the planting of Tobacco Relations of the usefulness of changing seed yearly of the steeping liming sowing it several wayes of freeing it from Worms preserving it long as eighty years of freeing it from smut of the causes and first signs of smut of the Instrument and way of chopping Straw for the feeding of Horses of Plants growing in meer Water of others growing in meer Air of several Indian Woods of the growing of the divided parts of Beans of the growing of chopp'd stalks of Potatoes of ordering Melons of keeping their Seed and producing extraordinary good ones without transplanting Relations of the growth breeding feeding and ordering of Oysters of a Sturgeon kept alive in Saint Iameses-Park of the moveable Teeth of Pikes of young Eeles cut alive out of the old ones Belly of the transporting Fish-spawn and Carps alive from one place to another of the strange increase of Carps so transported of Snake-stones and other Antidotes of Frogs Frog-spawn Toads Newts Vipers Snakes Rattle-Snakes Relations of several kinds of Poysons as that of Maccasser and Florence of Crawfishes of the Generation growth life and transformation of Ants of Cheese worms leaping like Fleas of living Worms found in the Entrails of Fishes of Insects found in the sheathing of Ships of the generation of Insects out of dead Cantharides of Insects bred in mens Teeth Gums Flesh Skin of great quantities of Flies living in Winter though frozen of the wayes of ordering Silk-worms in France Italy Virginia and of their not being hurt in Virginia by Thunder Relations of Swallows living after they have been frozen under water of Barnacles and Soland Geese of a new way of hatching Pigeons of the way of hatching Chickens in Egypt of Eggs proving fruitful after they had been frozen of recovering a tir'd Horse with Sheeps blood Relations of several Monsters with their Anatomies of the measure of a Giant-child of Stones found in several parts of the Body of an unusual way of cutting the Stone out of the Bladder of a Womans voiding the Bones of a Child out of her side eighteen years after her having been with child of grafting Teeth and making the Teeth of one Man grow in the mouth of another Relations of several Chirurgical operations of renewing the beating of the heart by blowing into the Receptaculum chyli of the Art of perfectly restoring Nerves transversly cut practis'd in France of a Mummy found in the Ruines of Saint Pauls after it had lain buried above 200. years of breaking the Nerve to the Diaphragm and of its effects of cutting a Stetoma out of a Womans Breast of making the blood Florid with Volatil and Coagulating with Acid Salts Relations of sympathetick Cures and Trials of the effects of Tobacco-oyl for casting into Convulsion fits of Moors killing themselves by holding their Breaths of walking on the Water by the help of a Girdle filled with Wind of Pendulum Clocks of several rare Guns and Experiments with them of new Quadrants and Astronomical Instruments of Experiments of refraction made by the French Academy of a way to make use of Eggs in painting instead of Oyl of the Island Hirta in Scotland of the Whispering place at Glocester of the Pike of Tenariff A RELATION OF THE PICO TENERIFFE Receiv'd from some considerable Merchants and Men worthy of Credit who went to the top of it HAving furnish'd our selves with a Guide Servants and Horses to carry our Wine and Provisions we set out from Oratava a Port Town in the Island of Tenariffe scituated on the North of it at two miles distant from the main Sea We travelled from twelve at night till eight in the morning by which time we got to the top of the first Mountain towards the Pico de Terraira here under a very great and conspicuous Pine tree we brake our fast dined and refresht our selves till two in the afternoon then we proceeded through much Sandy way over many lofty Mountains but naked and bare and not covered with any Pine trees as our first nights passage was this exposed us to excessive heat till we arrived at the foot of the Pico where we found many huge Stones which seemed to have been fallen down from some upper part About six a clock this evening we began to ascend up the Pico but being now a mile advanced and the way no more passable for our Horses we quitted and left them with our Servants In this miles ascent some of our company grew very faint and sick disorder'd by fluxes vomitings and Aguish distempers our Horses hair standing up right like Bristles but calling for some of our Wine which was carried in small Barrels on a Horse we found it so wonderfully cold that we could not drink it till we had kindled a fire
to warm it although yet the temper of the Air was very calm and moderate But when the Sun was set it began to blow with that violence and grew so cold that taking up our lodging under certain great Stones in the Rocks we were constreined to keep great fires before the mouthes of them all night About four in the morning we began to mount again and being come about a mile up one of the Company fail'd and was able to proceed no further Here began the black Rocks The rest of us pursued our Journey till we came to the Sugar-loaf where we begin to travel again in a white sand being fore-shod with shooes whose single soles are made a finger broader than the upper leather to encounter this difficult and unstable passage being ascended as far as the black Rocks which are all flat lie like a pavement we climbed within a mile of the very top of the Pico and at last we gained the Summit where we found no such smoak as appeared a little below but a continual breathing of a hot and sulphurous Vapour which made our faces extreamly sore In this passage we found no considerable alteration of Air and very little Wind but being at the top it was so impetuous that we had much ado to stand against it whilst we drank the Kings health and fired each of us a peece Here we also brake fast but found our Strong-water had quite lost its force and was become almost insipid whilst our Wine was rather more spirituous and brisque than it was before The top on which we stood being not above a yard broad is the brink of a Pit called the Caldera which we judged to be about a Musquet-shot over and neer fourscore yards deep in shape like a Cone within hollow like a Kettle or Cauldron and all over cover'd with small loose Stones mixt with Sulphur and Sand from amongst which issue divers Spiracles of smoak and heat when stirred with any thing puffs and makes a noise and so offensive that we were almost stifled with the sudden Emanation of Vapours upon the removing of one of these Stones which are so hot as they are not easily to be handled We descended not above four or five yards into the Caldera in regard of its fliding from our feet and the difficulty But some have adventured to the bottom Other observable materials we discover'd none besides a clear sort of Sulphur which looks like Salt upon the Stones From this famous Pico we could ken the Grand Canaria fourteen leagues distant Palma eighteen and Gomera seven leagues which interval of Sea seemed to us not much larger than the River of Thames about London We discerned also the Herro being distant above twenty leagues and so to the outmost limits of the Sea much farther So soon as the Sun appeared the shadow of the Pico seemed to cover not only the whole Island and the Grand Canaries but the Sea to the very Horison where the top of the Sugar-loaf or Pico visibly appeared to turn up and cast its shade into the Air it self at which we were much surprised But the Sun was not far ascended when the Clouds began to rise so fast as intercepted our prospect both of the Sea and the whole Island excepting only the tops of the subjacent Mountains which seem'd to pierce them through Whether these Clouds do ever surmount the Pico we cannot say but to such as are far beneath they sometimes seem to hang above it or rather wrap themselves about it as constantly when the North-west Wind blows this they call the Cappe and is a certain prognostick of ensuing Storms One of our company who made this journey again two years after arriving at the top of the Pico before day and creeping under a great Stone to shrowd himself from the cold Air after a little space found himself all wet and perceived it to come from a perpetual trickling of water from the Rocks above him Many excellent and very exuberant Springs we found issuing from the tops of most of the other Mountains gushing out in great Spouts almost as far as the huge Pine tree which we mention'd Having stay'd some time upon the top we all descended by the Sandy way till we came to the foot of the Sugar-loaf which being steep even to almost a perpendicular we soon passed And here we met a Cave of about ten yards deep and fifteen broad being in shape like an Oven or Cupola having a hole at the top which is neer eight yards over by this we descended by a Rope which our Servants held at the top whilst the other end being fastned about our middles we swing our selves till being over a Bank of Snow we slide down and light upon it We were forced to swing thus in the descent because in the middle of the bottom of this Cave opposite to the overture at the top is a round Pit of water resembling a Well the surface whereof is about a yard lower than the Snow but as wide as the mouth at top and is about six fathom deep We suppose this Water not a Spring but dissolved Snow blown in or Water trickling through the Rocks About the sides of the Grot for some height there is Ice and Icicles hanging down to the Snow But being quickly weary of this excessive cold place and drawn up again we continued our descent from the Mountains by the same passages we went up the day before and so about five in the evening arrived at Oratava from whence we set forth our Faces so red and sore that to cool them we were forced to wash and bathe them in Whites of Eggs c. The whole height of the Pico in perpendicular is vulgarly esteem'd to be two miles and a half No Trees Herbs or Shrubs in all the passage but Pines and amongst the whiter Sands a kind of Broom being a bushy Plant and at the side where we lay all night a kind of Cordon which hath Stems of eight foot high the Trunk near half a foot thick every Stem growing in four squares and emerging from the ground like Tuffets of Rushes upon the edges of these Stems grow very small red Buttons or Berries which being squeezed produc'd a poysonous Milk which lighting upon any part of a Horse or other Beast fetches off the hair from the skin immediately of the dead part of this we made our fires all night This Plant is also universally spread over the Island and is perhaps a kind of Euphorbium Of the Island Tenariffe it self this account was given by a Judicious and Inquisitive Man who liv'd twenty years in it as a Physician and Merchant His opinion is that the whole Island being a ground mightily impregnated with Brimstone did in former times take fire and blow up all or near upon all at the same time and that many Mountains of huge Stones calcin'd and burnt which appear every where about the Island especially in the Southwest
parts of it were rais'd and heav'd up out of the Bowels of the Earth at the time of that general conflagration and that the greatest quantity of this Sulphur lying about the Center of the Island raised up the Pico to that height at which it is now seen And he sayes that any one upon the place that shall carefully note the scituation and manner of these calcin'd Rocks how they lie will easily be of that mind For he sayes that they lye for three or four miles almost round the bottom of the Pico and in such order one above another almost to the very Sugar-loaf as 't is called as if the whole ground swelling and rising up together by the Ascension of the Brimstone the Torrents and Rivers of it did with a sudden Eruption rowl and tumble them down from the rest of the Rocks especially as was said before to the South-west For on that side from the very top of the Pico almost to the Sea shore lye huge heaps of these burnt Rocks one under another And there remain to this time the very Tracts of the Rivers of Brimstone as they ran over all this quarter of the Island which hath so wasted the ground beyond recovery that nothing can be made to grow there but Broom But on the North side of the Pico few or none of these Stones appear And he concluded hence that the Volcanio discharg'd it self chiefly to the South-west He adds further that Mines of several Mettals were broken and blown up at the same time These calcin'd Rocks resembling some of them Iron-Ore some Silver and others Copper Particularly at a certain place in these South-west parts called the Azuleios being very high Mountains where never any English man but himself that ever he heard of was There are vast quantities of a loose blewish Earth intermixt with blew Stones which have on them yellow rust as that of Copper and Vitriol And likewise many little Springs of Vitriolate waters where he supposes was a Copper Mine And he was told by a Bell-founder of Oratava that out of two Horse loads of this Earth he got as much Gold as made two large Rings And a Portuguez told him who had been in the West-Indies that his opinion was there were as good Mines of Gold and Silver there as the best in the Indies There are likewise hereabout Nitrous Waters and Stones covered with a deep Saffron colour'd rust and tasting of Iron And further he mentions a Friend of his who out of two lumps of Earth or Ore brought from the top of this side the Mountain made two Silver-spoons All this he confirms from the late instance of the Palme Island eighteen leagues from Tenariffa where a Volcanio was fired about twelve years since the violence whereof made an Earthquake in this Island so great that he and others ran out of their houses fearing they would have fallen upon their heads They heard the noise of the Torrents of flaming Brimstone like Thunder and saw the fire as plain by night for about six weeks together as a Candle in the room And so much of the Sand and Ashes brought from thence by the Wind with Clouds fell on his Hat as fill'd a Sand box for his Inkhorn In some part of this Island there grows a crooked Shrub which they call Legnan which they bring for England as a sweet Wood There are likewise Abricots Peaches c. in Standard which bear twice a year Pear-trees also which are as pregnant Almonds of a tender shell Palms Plantains Oranges and Lemmons especially the Pregnadas which have small ones in their bellies from whence they are so denominated Also they have Sugar Canes and a little Cotton Colloquintida c. The Roses blow at Christmas There are good Carnations and very large but Tulips will not grow or thrive there Sampier clothes the Rocks in abundance and a kind of Clover the Ground Another Grass growing neer the Sea which is of a broader leaf so luscious and rank as it will kill a Horse that eats of it but no other Cattle Eighty ears of Wheat have been found to spring from one root but it grows not very high The Corn of this is transparent and bright like to the purest yellow Amber and one bushel hath produc'd one hundred and thirty in a seasonable year The Canary birds which they bring to us in England breed in the Barancos or Gills which the Water hath fretted away in the Mountains being places very cold There are also Quails Partridges larger than ours and exceeding beautiful great Wood-pigeons Turtles at Spring Crows and sometimes from the Coast of Barbary appears the Falcon Bees are carried into the Mountains where they prosper exceedingly They have wild Goats on the Mountains which climb to the very top of the Pico sometimes Also Hogs and multitudes of Conies Of Fish they have the Cherna a very large and excellent fish better tasted than any we have in England the Mero Dolphin Shark Lobsters without the great claws Mussles Periwinkles the Clacas which is absolutely the very best Shell-fish in the world they grow in the Rocks five or six under one great shell through the top holes whereof they peep out with their Nebs from whence the shells being broken a little more open with a stone they draw them forth There is likewise another Fish like an Eel which hath six or seven tails of a span in length united to one head and body which is also as short Besides these they have Turtles and Cabridos which are better than our Trouts The Island is full of Springs of pure Water tasting like Milk And in Lalaguna where the Water is not altogether so Limpid and Clear they percolate it through a kind of spungy Stone cut in form of a Bason The Vines which afford those excellent Wines grow all about the Island within a mile of the Sea such as are planted farther up are nothing esteem'd neither will they thrive in any of the other Islands for the Guanchios or antient Inhabitants he gives this full Account September the third about twelve years since he took his Journey from Guimar a Town inhabited for the most part by such as derive themselves from the old Cuanchios in the company of some of them to view their Caves and the Bodies buried in them This was a favour they seldome or never permit to any having in great veneration the Bodies of their Ancestours and likewise being most extreamly against any molestation of the Dead but he had done several Eleemosinary Cures amongst them for they are generally very poor yet the poorest thinks himself too good to marry with the best Spaniard which indeared him to them exceedingly otherways it is death for any Stranger to visit these Caves or Bodies These Bodies are sowed up in Goat-skins with thongs of the same with very great curiosity particularly in the incomparable exactness and evenness of the seams and the Skins are made very close and fit to
the help of Needles to discover those lines of Direction when the influence of many Loadstones is compounded to find what those lines are incompassing a Sphaerical Loadstone what about a Square and what about a regular Figure to bore through the Axis of a Loadstone and fill it up with a Cylindrical Steel Experiments on Loadstones having many Poles and yet the Stones seeming uniform The fifth kind is of the growth of Vegetables in several kinds of Water as River-water Rain-water Distill'd-water May-dew of hindring the growth of Seed Corn in the Earth by extracting the Air and furthering their growth by admitting it of steeping Seeds of several kinds of inverting the Positions of Roots and Plants set in the ground to find whether there are values in the Pores of the Wood that only open one way of the decrease of the weight of Plants growing in Air of Lignum Fossile of the growing of some branches of Rosemary by only sprinkling the leaves with water of Camphire wood of Wood brought from the Canaries of a stinking Wood brought out of the East-Indies of the re-union of the Bark of Trees after it had been separated from the Body The sixth are Experiments Medicinal and Anatomical as of cutting out the Spleen of a Dog of the effects of Vipers biting Dogs of a Camaeleon and its dissection of preserving Animals in Spirit of Wine Oyl of Turpentine and other Liquors of injecting various Liquors and other Substances into the veins of several creatures Experiments of destroying Mites by several Fumes of the equivocal Generation of Insects of feeding a Carp in the Air of making Insects with Cheese and Sack of killing Water-Newts Toads and Sloworms with several Salts of killing Frogs by touching their skin with Vinegar Pitch or Mercury of a Spiders not being inchanted by a Circle of Vnicorns horn or Irish Earth laid round about it Experiments with a Poyson'd Indian Dagger on several Animals with the Maccasser Poyson with Florentine Poyson and several Antidotes against it of making Flesh grow on after it has been once cut off of the grafting a Spur on the head of a Cock and its growing of the living of Creatures by Factitious Air of the reviving of Animals strangled by blowing into their Lungs of Flesh not breeding Worms when secur'd from Fly-blowings of the suffocation of Animals upon piercing the Thorax of hatching Silk-worms Eggs in rarify'd Air of transfusing the blood of one Animal into another The seventh sort are about those which are call'd sensible Qualities as of freezing of cold and heat of freezing Water freed from Air of the time and manner of the contraction in freezing luke-warm Water of the temperature of several places by seal'd Thermometers as of several Countries of the bottoms of deep Mines Wells Vaults on the tops of Hills at the bottom of the Sea Experiments of the contraction of Oyl of Vitriol and divers other Oyls by freezing of freezing bitter Tinctures of freezing several ting'd Liquors and driving all the tincture inward to the Center of shewing Ice to be capable of various degrees of cold greater than is requisite to keep it Ice of producing cold by the dissolution of several Salts of freezing Water without blebs of a membranous substance separable from the blood by freezing of a Thermometer in rarify'd and condens'd Air of very easie freezing of Oyl of Anniseeds of making a Standard of Cold by freezing distill'd-water The eighth are of Rarity Density Gravity Pressure Leuity Fluidity Firmness Congruity c. as of the Nature of Grauity of the cohaesion of two Flat Marbles of compressing the Air with Mercury to find its spring of the weights of Bodies solid and fluid of rarefaction and condensation by the help of Mercury of the tenacity of several Bodies of the turning of two very fluid Liquors into one solid mass by mingling them together Experiments for examining whether the gravity of Bodies alter according as they are carried a good way above or below the surface of the Earth of the standing of Mercury well exhausted many inches nay many feet above its usual standing of a Wheel-Baro-Meter of the expansion and contraction of Glass and Metals by heat and cold of Spirit of Wine and several ting'd Liquors by the help of a Glass Tube the examination of Monsieur Paschals Experiment by many others The ninth are Experiments of Light Sound Colours Taste Smell as of two transparent Liquors producing an opacous one of Ecchos and reflected sounds of Musical sounds and Harmonies of Colours of the greater refraction of Water than of Ice of Refraction in a new Engine of the Refraction of Glass of various shapes under Water of destroying the shining of Fish by Oyl of Vitriol of making a great light by rubbing two Chrystals hard one against the other of making a deaf and dumb man to speak The tenth are Experiments of Motion as of Glass drops several wayes order'd and broken of the velocity of the descent of several Bodies of divers fashions through several Liquors of determining the velocity of Bodies falling through the Air try'd by many wayes of the swift motion of sounds of the irregular motion of the Oyl of Turpentine on Spirit of Wine of the strength of falling Bodies according to the several Heights from which they fall of proportioning the shapes of Bodies so as to make them fall together in the same time through differing Mediums Experiments of the swiftness of a Bullet shot with extraordinary Powder of the best Figure of the weight of a Pendulum for Motion of the Motion of Pendulous Bodies of various figures to determine the length of Pendulums to find the velocity of the vibrations of a sounding string to find the velocity of motion propagated by a very long extended Wire for explaining the inflection of a streight motion into a circular by a supervening attractive power towards the Center in order to the explaining of the motion of the Planets Experiments of the circular and complicated motion of Pendulums to explain the Hypothesis of the Moons moving about the Earth of comparing the Motions of a circular Pendulum with the motion of a streight one of the propagation of motion from one Body to another of the reflection of motion of the vibrating motion of Quick-silver in a crooked Pipe imitating the motion of a Pendulum of communicating of the strength of Powder for the bending of Springs and thereby for making artificial Muscles to command what strength we desire The eleventh are Experiments Chymical Mechanical Optical as of reducing the Flesh of Animals into a Liquor like blood by dissolving it in a certain Menstruum of a greater facility of raising Water in Pipes of a larger Bore of brewing Beer with Bread Barly Oats Wheat and without malting of precipitating Tartar out of Wine by several expedients of a Chymical extraction of a volatil Spirit and Salt out of Spunges of examining Aurum fulminans after explosion
ceaseth to recoil before the Bullet be parted from it And with more than twelve grains the Bullet is parted from the Peece before it hath recoiled so far A greater power not moving a greater weight swifter horizontally in the same proportion that it doth the lesser And for the third I have this to offer viz Because the mouth of the Gun is moving sidewards whilst the Bullet is going out Therefore the mouth of the Peece must be contiguous at least unto the Bullet on the contrary side to that on which the Peece recoils some time after the separation made on the other side and therefore the last impulse of the Bullet from the force of the Powder is on that side the Peece recoils wherefore the Bullet must necessarily cross the Axis of the Peece and that with a greater or lesser Angle according to the force of the Powder when this Angle therefore is greater than the Angle of recoil then must the Axis of that Cylinder in which the Bullet moues cross the Axis of the mark beyond which interjection the mark being placed the Bullet must be carried necessarily wide of the mark on the contrary side to the recoil of the Peece fek = flp = phm = the Angle of Recoile phn the Angle of Reflexion made at the parting of the Bullet from the Peece When phn > phm mh being alwayes parallel to fg then must hn entersect fg if continued Some other Experiments I have also made with another Peece about the same length but of a bore neer two tenths of an inch less and ordered in the same manner and do find that with a small charge the Bullet is shot thence too wide of the mark on the same side on which the Recoil is made and with a full charge wide the contrary side I caused besides two Pistol barrels of about five inches long to be placed upon Carriages with four Wheels and loaded with lead that they might not overturn when discharged and both of equal weight and an Iron Cylinder of the length of both their bores and of the same diameter with a piece of Lead of weight equal to it So that the piece of Lead affixed to either of these Guns which of them I should please to charge might equally poise the other with the Iron Cylinder And thus indifferently charging either with eight grains more or less of Powder and putting the Iron Cylinder home into both the piece of Lead being affixed to that which held the Powder and then both so set upon the floor and the Powder fired I could not thereby discover that the charged Peece or the other either of them did certainly recoil more or less than the other they rather seemed still to be equal These few Experiments I have made since the Barrel being first cut at the muzzle parallel to a vertical plain passing the line CD B 48 0.8 L R 48 1.2 L B 48 0.9 L L 48 0.2 L B 16 0.1 R L 48 0.3 L B â—8 0.2 R Â Â Â Â B â—8 0. â— N Â Â Â Â Besides these there is another that I shall mention and that is the Experiment it self or the Double-Bottom'd-Ship invented by Sir William Petty of this I will venture to add a few words and I think I may do it without transgressing that Rule I had fix'd to my self of not enlarging on the praise of particular Names or Designs For since the Experiment it self is lost I hope I may securely speak of its advantages seeing men are wont out of common humanity to allow the commendations of dead Men I trust I may commend a wreck'd Ship without any fear of the envy that may thence arise to the Author In brief therefore I will say this of it that it was the most considerable Experiment that has been made in this Age of Experiments if either we regard the great charge of the work or the wonderful change it was likely to make in Navigation or the great success to which this first Attempt was arriv'd Though it was at first confronted with the doubts and Objections of most Seamen of our Nation yet it soon confuted them by Experience It appear'd very much to excel all other forms of Ships in sayling in carriage in security and many other such benefits Its first Voyage it perform'd with admirable swiftness And though it miscarried after its return yet it was destroyed by a common fate and by such a dreadful tempest as overwhelm'd a great Fleet the same night so that the Antient Fabricks of Ships have no reason to triumph over that new Model when of the threescore and ten sail that were in the same Storm there was not one escap'd to bring the News In a word though this Invention succeeded not while it was only supported by private Purses it will undoubtedly produce great effects if ever it shall be retreiv'd upon the publick Stock of a Nation which will be able to sustain the first hazards and losses that must be allow'd to happen in the beginnings of all extraordinary Trials To their Experiments I will subjoin their Observations which differ but in name from the other the same fidelity and truth being regarded in collecting them both Observations of the fix'd Stars for the perfecting of Astronomy by the help of Telescopes of the Comets in 1665 and 1666. which were made both in London and elsewhere and particularly of the first Comet for above a month after it disappear'd to the naked eye and became Stationary and Retrograde Observations about Saturn of the proportion and position of its Ring of the Motion and Orbit of its Lunale of the shadow of the Ring on the Body and of the Body on the Ring and of its Phases c. of Iupiters Belts and of its spots and verticity about its Axis of its eclipsing its Satellites and being eclips'd by them of the Orbs Inclinations Motions c. of the Satellites together with Tables and Ephemerides of their motions Observations of the Spots about the Body of Mars and of its whirling motion about its Center of several Eclipses of the Sun and Moon and some of them as were not taken notice of by Astronomers or Tables commonly us'd of the Spots in the Moon and of the several appearances in the Phases of it of the Moon at the same time by Correspondents in several parts of the World towards the finding her Parallax and distance Observations of the Eliptical and waved Figures of the Planetary Bodies neer the Horizon from the refraction of the Hemisphere of the effects of Lightning of the various pressure of the Atmosphere by a Wheel-barometer for several years and of its usefulness for predicting the changes of Weather Observations on frozen Beer on the Figures of Snow frozen Water Vrine congeal'd on the suspension of Mercury at a great height on Mines and Minerals on the Concretions of Wood Plants Shells and several Animal Substances on the effects of Earthquakes
for Astronomical Observations or taking Angles at Land A new Instrument for taking Angles by reflection by which means the Eye at the same time sees the two Objects both as touching in the same point though distant almost to a Semicircle which is of great use for making exact Observations at Sea A new kind of Back-staff for taking the Suns altitude by the Shadow and Horizon which is so contriv'd that though the shadow be at three foot distance or as much more as is desir'd yet there shall not be the least Penumbra and the Shadow may be easily distinguish'd to the fourth part of a minute A Hoop of all the fix'd Stars in the Zodiac for the speedy finding the Position of the Ecliptic and for knowing the extent of the Constellations A Copernican Sphere representing the whirling Motion of the Sun and the Motion of the several Planets A great many new wayes of making Instruments for keeping time very exactly both with Pendulums and without them whereby the intervals of time may be measur'd both on the Land and Sea A universal Standard or measure of Magnitudes by the help of a Pendulum never before attempted A new kind of Pendulum Clock wherein the Pendulum moves circularly going with the most simple and natural motion moving very equally and making no kind of noise A Pendulum Clock shewing the aequation of Time Three new wayes of Pendulums for Clocks and several wayes of applying the motion of the Watch-work to them Several new kinds of Pendulum Watches for the Pocket wherein the motion is regulated by Springs or Weights or Loadstones or Flies moving very exactly regular Several sorts of Instruments for compressing and rarefying the Air A Wheel-Barometer and other Instruments for finding the pressure of the Air and serving to predict the changes of the Weather A new kind of Scales for examining the gravity of Bodies in all places to see whether the attraction of the Earth be not greater in some parts of the Earth than in others and whether it do not decrease at farther distances from the surface of the Earth either upwards into the Air or downwards under the Earth A very exact pair of Scales for trying a great number of Magnetical Experiments Several very accurate Beams for trying many Statical Experiments and for finding the most exact gravity of several kinds of Bodies A great number of Magnetical Instruments for making Experiments about Loadstones Several new kinds of Levels for finding the true Horizon where by one of not above a foot length the Horizontal line may be found without the error of many seconds A new kind of Augar for boring the ground and fetching up whatever it meets with in the right order A new Instrument for fetching up any Substance from the bottom of the Sea whether Sand Shels Clay Stones Minerals Metals A new Bucket for examining and fetching up whatever Water is to be found at the bottom of the Sea or at any dept and for bringing it up without mixing with the other Water of the Sea through which it passes Two new wayes of sounding the depth of the Sea without a Line for examining the greatest dept of the Ocean in those parts of it that are most remote from the Land Several Instruments for finding the velocity of swimming Bodies of several Figures and mov'd with divers strengths and for trying what Figures are least apt to be overturn'd in order to the making a true Theory of the Forms of Ships and Boats for all uses An Instrument of great height with Glass-windows on the sides to be fill'd with Water for examining the velocity of Bodies of several Substances Figures and Magnitudes by their descent An Instrument for measuring and dividing the time of their Descent to the accurateness of two or three thirds of time serving also for examining the swiftness of Bodies descending through the Air and of Bodies shot by a Gun or Bow A Bell for diving under water to a great depth wherein a man has continued at a considerable depth under water for half an hour without the least inconvenience Another Instrument for a Diver wherein he may continue long under water and may walk to and fro and make use of his strength and limbs almost as freely as in the Air. A new sort of Spectacles whereby a Diver may see any thing distinctly under Water A new way of conveighing the Air under Water to any Depth for the use of Divers An Instrument for measuring the swiftness and strength of the Wind. An Instrument for the raising a continual stream of Water by turning round a moveable valve within the hollow of a close Cylindrical Barrel Several kinds of Thermometers for discovering the heat and cold of the Air or any other Liquors a Thermometer for examining all the degrees of heat in Flames and Fires made of several Substances as also the degrees of heat requisite to melt Soder Lead Tin Silver Brass Iron Copper Gold A Standard for Cold several wayes An Instrument for planting of Corn. Four several sorts of Hygroscopes made with several Substances for discovering the drowth and moisture of the Air. Several kinds of ways to examine the goodness and badness of Waters Several Engines for finding and determining the force of Gun-powder by Weights Springs Sliding c. An Instrument for receiving and preserving the force of Gun-powder so as to make it applicable for the performing of any motion desir'd Several Instruments for examining the recoiling true carriage and divers other proprieties of Guns Several kinds of Otocousticons or Instruments to improve the sense of hearing Several Models of Chariots and other Instruments for Progressive Motion A Chariot-way-wiser measuring exactly the length of the way of the Chariot or Coach to which it is apply'd An Instrument for making Screws with great dispatch A way of preserving the most exact impression of a Seal Medal Sculpture and that in a Metal harder than Silver An Instrument for grinding Optick-glasses a double Telescope several excellent Telescopes of divers lengths of six twelve twenty eight thirty six sixty foot long with a convenient Apparatus for the managing of them and several contrivances in them for measuring the Diameters and parts of the Planets and for finding the true position and distance of the small fix'd Stars and Satellites Towards the exactness of all manner of these Optick-glasses the English have got a great advantage of late years by the Art of making Glass finer and more serviceable for Microscopes and Telescopes than that of Venice This Invention was brought into our Country and practis'd here by the care and expence of the Duke of Buckingham whom the Author of these Papers ought to mention with all honour both for his Skill and Zeal in advancing such Experimental Studies of which I am writing and also because it has been by the favour of so great a Patron that I have injoy'd the leisure and convenience of composing this History As soon as they were reduc'd into
seem to give me sufficient ground to suspect that the confidence of those who hold them to be several Salts proceedeth chiefly from their being unacquainted with the various 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of Salt-peter in the making and refining of it and also their comparing double refined Salt-peter of which Gunpowder is made with that description of Nitrum and Aprhonitrum in the tenth chapter of the one and thirtieth Book of Plinies Natural History the only tolerable accompt of that Salt that hath been handed to us from Antiquity where he tells us That Aphronitrum was Colore penè purpureo and Egyptian Nitre Fuscum Lapidosum adding afterward Sunt ibi Nitrariae in quibus rufum exit a colore terrae which is sufficient to have hinted to any one but moderately versed in the modern way of ordering Salt-peter that the Antients were not at all skilled in refining their Nitre from the Earth and common Salt that is usually mingled with it nor from that foul yellow Oyl which it seems did accompany their Nitre as well as it doth our Salt-peter in great abundance for Pliny takes notice of it when he mentions the removing the Nitre after it is grained out of the Nitrariae saying Hic quoque natura olei intervenit ad scabiem animalium utilis And indeed this greasie Oyl which the Workmen call Mother of Salt-peter and perhaps is but the crude and unripe part of it doth by nature so wonderfully adhere to every part else of the Peter it may be ordained for the nutriment and augmentation of it that the separation of it is the sole cause of the great charge and labour that is required to the refining of Peter otherwise the Peter will be yellow or brown or some other dark colour And Scaliger in his 104. Exercit. sect 15. saith Sublustris purpurae quasi splendor quidam in salis-petrae-terris sepenumero est a nobis observatus and he that shall boyl a Lixivium past through a Salt-peter-earth up to a consistence without filtring it through ashes or giving the Salt leave to Chrystallize may perhaps find something not unlike the Nitre of the Antients To make this doubt yet clearer it will require your patience to observe a few short remains out of the same Pliny concerning the production of Nitre saith he Exiguum Nitri fit apud Medos candescentibus siccitate convallibus quod vocant Halmirhaga minus etiam in Thracia juxta Philippos sordidum Terra quod appellant Agrium This agrees very exactly with what I have been informed of by a Refiner of Salt-peter that near Sophia Santa-Cruz and several other places in Barbary he hath seen Salt-peter shoot out of the ground as thick and white as a hoar frost on many barren and desart Lands only he adds that this happens not till the beginning of the rains in August or September and that it is the falling of the fresh-water that causes the Salt-peter to shoot out into little Chrystals and that the people of the Country do no more but take it off the ground as clean as they can and sell it to Merchant-Strangers This is sayes he the Barbary Peter which the Refiners buy commonly at twenty shillings per Cent. Much after the same manner by the relation of an India Merchant is that great quantity of Peter produced which of late years hath been brought into England and other parts of Christendom from about Pegu in East-India saving that the Natives do refine it once before they sell it to the Merchants But being not so skilful to discharge it from the common Salt which attends Peter our Workmen do refine it again before it be fit for Gun-powder The next remarque out of Pliny is Aquae vero Nitrosae pluribus in locis reperiuntur sed sine viribus Densandi he means by the heat of the Sun in those places Optimum Copiosumque in Clytis Macedoniae quod vocant Chalastricum candidum purumque proximum sali Lacus est Nitrosus exiliente è medio dulci fonticulo ibi fit Nitrum circa Canis ortum novenis diebus totidemque cessat rursus innatat deinde cessat iis autem diebus quibus gignitur si fuëre imbres salsius Nitrum faciunt Aquilones deterius quia Validius commovent limum In Egypto autem conficitur multò abundantius sed deterius nam suscum lapidosumque est fit penè eodem modo quo Sal nisi quod Salinis mare infundunt Nilum autem Nitrariis How such great plenty of Nitre should be found in the Waters above mention'd will be no difficulty to conjecture if we consider that Lakes are the receptacles of Land floods and that great Rains may easily bring it to the Lake in Macedonia from the higher parts in the Country about it And for the River Nile there must needs be less scruple concerning it if we call to mind that once in a year it sweeps with an impetuous overflow the burnt and barren Desarts of Africa under the Torrid Zone where by the relation of Travellers those Sands are visibly full of Nitre and those few Springs and Wells that are to be found there are by that reason so bitter that the Mores and their Camels are forced to make a hard shift with them in their long journeys But when he comes to describe the Aphronitrum he comes more home both to the name and nature of our Salt-peter in these words Proxima aetas Medicorum tradidit Aphronitrum in Asia Colligi in speluncis molibus distillans dein sole siccant And Scaliger speaking of Salt-peter sayes Est quaedam Nitri species inhaerens Rupibus in quibus insolatur ac propterea Salpetra dicitur And I my self for my own satisfaction in the point have drawn very good Rock peter out of those Stiriae which are usually found hanging like Icycles in Arched-cellars and Vaults and have been told that a Physitian in Shropshire did perform great Cures by vertue of Sal-prunellae which he made only of Flower of Brimstone and those Stiriae But to steer more directly upon our immediate subject Salt-peter though it be likely that the Air is every where full of a volatile kind of Nitre which is frequently to be seen coagulated into fine white Salt like Flower of Wheat but by the very taste may be easily known to be Peter sticking to the sides of Plastred-walls and in Brick-walls to the Mortar between the Bricks in dry weather or where the wall is defended from the rain for Lime doth strongly attract it though Dew and Rain do conveigh much of it to the Earth and the Clouds seem to be spread out before the face of the Sun either to imbibe some part of his influence or to have a Salt generated in them for to advance the fertility of the Earth and certainly they return not without a blessing for I have more than once extracted Salt peter out of Rain and Dew but from the latter more plentifully and yet even there is Salt-peter accompanied
with a greazy purple Oyl in great plenty Though as I have found upon tryal that most standing waters and even deep Wells have some small quantity of Salt-peter in them though the face of the Earth if it were not impregnated with this Salt could not produce Vegetables for Salt as the Lord Bacon sayes is the first Rudiment of Life and Nitre is as it were the life of Vegetables Yet to be more sure of it I made Experiment likewise there too and found some little of it in fallows and the Earth which Moles cast up in the Spring Though I say the Air and Water want it not yet is it not there to be had in any proportion answerable to the charge in getting it And though the Earth must necessarily have great quantities thereof generated or infused into it yet in these temperate Countreys of Europe it is no sooner dilated by Rain-water or the Moisture of the Earth but it is immediately applyed to the production or nutriment of some Plant Insect Stone or Mineral so that the Artist will find as little of it here to serve his turn as in the other two Elements The only place therefore where Salt-peter is to be found in these Northern Countries is in Stables Pigeon-houses Cellars Barns Ware-houses or indeed any place which is covered from the Rain which would dissolve it and as I have said make it vegetate as also from the Sun which doth rarifie it and cause it to be exhaled into the Air For the same reason Husbandmen also might make double or treble the profit they usually do of their Muck if they would lay it up under a Hovel or some covered place until they carry it out upon their Land And I have been told by an experienced Workman that no place yields Peter so plentifully as the Earth in Churches were it not an impiety to disturb the Ashes of our Ancestours in that sacred Depository Provided alwayes that the Earth be of good mould and the better the mould is the more Peter is produc'd for in Clay or sandy Earth little or none is to be found The freer ingress the Air hath into a place is still of more advantage so that the Sun be excluded And let the Earth be never so good if it be laid on a brick or boarded floor it will not be so rich in Peter as if it have free communication with the Exhalations of the lower parts of the Earth In any place thus qualified you cannot miss of good quantities of Peter if it have not been drawn out in some years before which a Workman will quickly find after he hath digged the first spadeful of Earth by laying a little of it on the end of his tongue and if it tast bitter he is sure of good store of mineral as they love to call it that is Salt-peter if the Ground be good it continues rich to six or eight foot deep and sometimes but not often to ten After the Salt-peter is extracted if the Earth be laid wet into the same place again it will be twenty years ere any considerable quantity grow there of it but if the Earth be well dryed it will come in twelve or fourteen and if they mingle with the dryed Earth store of Pigeons-dung and mellow Horse-dung and then temper it with Urine as was usual before we were supplied with Peter from India it will be fit to dig again in five or six years He that shall cast Water upon a Ground fit to dig for Peter will only sink the Mineral deeper into the Earth but he that throws Soap-suds on it will quite destroy the Peter as the Workmen have a Tradition and it very well deserves a further Enquiry That Salt-peter and the way of drawing it out of the Earth now in use was a modern Invention is generally concluded by all Authors but whether we owe it to chance or the sagacity of some great Wit is as unknown as the time when it was first discovered It seems to have many years preceeded the Invention of Gunpowder which by the Germans is ascribed to Constantine Autlitzer or Berthold Schwertz a Monk of Friburgh and was in all probability not long discovered when the Inventor as Polydore Virgil tells us taught the use of Guns to the Venetians at the Battel of Fossa Claudia when they obtain'd that notable Victory over the Genoueses Anno 1380. For there is mention made both of Salt-peter and Aqua fortis in the Writings of Geber a Spanish More and an Alchymist but at what time he lived is unknown though it be certain some hundreds of years before Raimund Lully who about the year 1333. published some of his Books wherein he treats of Salt-peter and Aqua fortis It is no ill conjecture of Maierus that the foresaid Monk being a skilful Alchymist had a design to draw a higher Spirit from Peter than the common Aqua fortis and that he might better open the body of Peter he ground it with Sulphur and Charcoal by which Composure he soon became the Inventour of Gun-powder The manner of making SALT-PETER IN the first place you must be provided of eight or ten Tubs so large that they may be able to contain about ten Barrows full of Earth each of them These Tubs must be all open at the top but in the bottom of every one of them you must make a hole near to that side you intend to place outermost which hole you must fit very well with a Tap and Spigot on the outside downward On the inside of the Tub near the tap-hole you must carefully place a large wad of straw and upon that a short piece of board which is all to keep the earth from stopping up the tap-hole When you have placed your Tubs on their stands at such a distance one from the other that you may come with ease between them then fill them up with such Peter-earth as you have chosen for your work leaving only void about a spans breadth between the Earth and the edge of the Tub then lay on the top of the Earth in each Tub as near as you can to the middle a rundle of Wicker like the bottom of a Basket and about a foot in diameter and by it stick into the earth a good strong Cudgel which must be thrust pretty near the bottom the Wicker is to keep the Water when it is poured on from hollowing and disordering the Earth and the Cudgel is to be stirred about to give the Water ingress to the Earth upon occasion Then pour on your Earth common cold Water till it stand a hands breadth over the Earth When it hath stood eight or ten hours loosen the Spigots and let the Water rather dribble than run into half Tubs which must be set under the taps This Lixivium the Workmen call their Raw-liquor and note that if it come not clear at the first drawing you must pour it on again and after some little time draw it off till
proportion is the mixture about which most of the workmens time and pains is bestowed For first in a Horse-mill with two stones like that with which they grind their Materials at the Glass-house moving upon a Marble bottom which is edged with boards set sloaping that what slips from under the stones may slide back again They grind the Brimstone and Coal each of them apart by themselves as fine as possibly they can then they sift each of them apart by themselves The Brimstone is sifted thorow Tiffany in a Bolting-mill such as the Bakers use for wheat-flower The Coal is sifted thorow Lockram in a bag made like a shirt sleeve for the convenience of the Work-man it is done in a close Bin with only two holes for him to put his arms in and shake the bag about Whatsoever of each material is not small enough to sift thorow is brought again to the Mill to be new ground As for the Peter that must in the Copper be dissolved in as much water as will just take it up and then the water must be boyled away till the Peter comes to the thickness of hasty-pudding The reason of this operation is because when the Peter is thus soft the other materials will the easilier incorporate with it and in the next place it will not wear the wooden pestles so much when it comes to the Mill as when it is hard and dry When the Materials are in this readiness they are weighed only the Peter is weighed before it is put to dissolve in the Copper and by proportion are carried to the mingling Trough which is made of boards like a great Chest without a cover being about eight foot long four broad and three foot high The Coal is laid in first the Brimstone next and the Peter at top of all Then two men with shovels stir and mingle them together for an hour and then 't is ready for the Mill. The Powder-mills are seldom made to move with any thing but water The great water-wheel is made like that of an ordinary water-wheel either over-shot or under-shot according to the quantity of water they have to the axis of this wheel a little way within the Mill is fastned a lesser wheel called the Spar-wheel with strong Cogs which in their motion round take hold of the round slaves of another wheel of about the same diameter set a little way above it and fastned to the end of a beam of 15 or 16 foot long laid parallel to the Horizon with an iron gudgeon at the other end of it to facilitate its motion round This beam is called the round beam out of it come a certain number of arms of about nine inches long and three inches broad which in their going round meet with other lesser armes called Tapes coming out of the Pestles for so they call certain small quarters of Timber placed perpendicular to the Horizon about nine foot long and four inches broad they are set in a slight frame to keep them steady by these small arms the Pestles are lifted up about two foot and a half and then let fall into a strong wooden Trough set under them wherein the powder is put to be pounded Every Mill hath two Troughs and about sixteen Pestles every Pestle hath fastned to the lower end of it a round piece of Lignum Vitae of about five inches long and three and a half diameter and into the bottom of the Trough just where the Pestle is to fall is let in another piece of Lignum Vitae of the fashion and bigness of an ordinary Bowl split according to its longest diameter The Pestles are not lifted up all together but alternatively to make the Powder turn the better in the working and for the same reason round Troughs are counted better than square To make excellent Powder it ought to be wrought thus thirty hours but of late they will not afford it above eighteen or twenty hours once in eight hours they use to moisten the Powder with a little fair water others who are more curious put water something thickned with quick-lime others use White-wine Vinegar others Aqua-vitae But if it be not moistned with something once in eight hours the Powder will grow dry and in half an hour after it will take fire As soon as the Powder grows dry you may find it though at a distance by the noise of the Mill for then the Pestles will rebound from the bottom of the Trough and make a double stroak The only danger to the Mill is not from the Trough for many times the iron Gudgeons grow hot for want of greasing and then the dust that flies about will be apt to fire and so the Mill blows up From the Mill the Powder is brought to the Corning-house of a middle temper between moist and dry The way of corning it is with two hair Sieves joyn'd together the upper Sieve inclosing some part of the hoop of the lower Sieve The upper Sieve hath holes of the size you will have the Powder grained at the holes of the lower Sieve are much lesser The upper Sieve they call their corning Sieve the lower their wet Duster They lay the Powder upon the upper Sieve some two inches thick upon that a piece of heavy wood made like a Trencher of about eight inches diameter and two and a half in thickness called a Runner which when the Sieve is moved by its weight and motion forces the Powder thorow the upper Sieve and that corns it Then the lower Sieve receives the Powder and lets the dust go thorow into a Bin over which the Sieve is shaken called the Dusting-Bin When the Powder is thus corned it is laid about an inch and half thick on the drying Sieves which are made of course Canvase fastned to slight frames of Deal about an ell long and some twenty inches broad and thus it is carried into Stoves to dry The Stove is commonly a little Room about eighteen or twenty foot square with ranges of small Firr poles about two foot one above another to lay the drying Sieves upon but only on that side the fire is made Besides a glass window to give light there must be a small lover hole at the top of the Room to let out the steam else the Powder will not only be the longer a drying but often by the return of the steam on the Sieves the top of the Powder will be so crusted that the lower part will not dry The Rome is heated by an Iron of about a yard high and half a yard broad cast in the form of an Arch equal to a Semy-quadrant and placed in the back of a Chimney the fore part whereof is like a Furnace and to avoid danger opens into another little Room apart called the Stoke-hole The Powder is brought into the Stove before it be heated and is not taken out again till the Stove be cold and about eight hours is required to the drying of it In
hot Countries the Sun is the best Stove and a great deal of danger and charges that way avoided After the Powder is dried it is brought again to the Corning-house where it is again sifted over the dusting Bin in other double Sieves but without any Runners These Sieves have both of them smaller holes than the former The upper Sieve is called the Separater and serves to divide the great corns from the lesser the great corns are put by themselves and serve for Cannon Powder The lower Sieve is called the dry Duster and retains the small corns which serve for Musquet and Pistol and le ts fall the dust into the bin which is to be mingled with fresh Materials and again wrought over in the Mill. So that good Powder differs from bad besides the well working and mingling of the Materials in having more Peter and less Coal and lastly in the well dusting of it The last work is to put the Powder into Barrels every Barrel is to contain five score weight of Powder and then 't is ready for sale AN APPARATUS TO THE HISTORY Of the Common Practices of DYING By Sir WILLIAM PETTY IT were not incongruous to begin the History with a Retrospect into the very nature of Light it self as to inquire whether the same be a Motion or else a Body nor to premise some Theorems about the Sun Flame Glow-worms the eyes of some Animals shining Woods Scales of some Fishes the dashing of the Sea stroaks upon the eyes the Bolonian Slate called by some the Magnet of Light and of other light and lucid bodies It were also not improper to consider the very essentials of Colour and Transparencies as that the most transparent bodies if shaped into many angles present the eye with very many colours That bodies having but one single superficies have none at all but are suscipient of every colour laid before them That great depths of Air make a Blew and great depths of Water a Greenish colour That great depths or thicknesses of coloured Liquors do all look Blackish red Wine in a large Conical Glass being of all reddish colours between black at the top and white at the bottom That most Vegetables at one time or other are greenish and that as many things passing the Sun are blackned so many others much whitened by the same Other things are whitened by acid Fumes as red Roses and raw Silks by the smoak of Brimstone Many Mettals as Steel and Silver become of various colours and Tarnish by the air and by several degrees of heat We might consider the wonderful variety of colours appearing in Flowers Feathers and drawn from Mettals their Calces and Vitrifications and of the colours rising out of transparent Liquors artificially mixed But these things relating to the abstracted nature of colours being too hard for me I wholly decline rather passing to name and but to name some of the several sorts of Colorations now commonly used in Humane affairs and as vulgar Trades in these Nations which are these viz. 1. There is a whitening of Wax and several sort of Linen and Cotton Cloathes by the Sun Air and by reciprocal effusions of Water 2. Colouring of Wood and Leather by Lime Salt and Liquors as in Staves Canes and Marble Leathers 3. Colouring of Paper viz. Marbled Paper by distempering the colours with Ox-gall and applying them upon a stiff gummed Liquor 4. Colouring or rather Discolouring the colours of Silks Tiffanies c. by Brimstone 5. Colouring of several Iron and Copper work into Black with Oyl 6. Colouring of Leather into Gold-colour or rather Silver leaves into Gold by Varnishes and in other cases by Urine and Sulphur 7. Dying of Marble and Alabaster with heat and coloured Oyls 8. Colouring Silver into Brass with Brimstone or Urine 9. Colouring the Barrels and Locks of Guns into Blew and Purple with the temper of Small-coal heat 10. Colouring of Glass made of Sands Flints c. as also of Crystals and Earthen Ware with the rusts and solutions of Metals 11. The colouring of live Hair as in Poland Horse and Mans Hair as also the colouring of Furrs 12. Enameling and Anealing 13. Applying Colours as in the Printing of Books and Pictures and as in making of playing Cards being each of them performed in a several way 14. Guilding and Tinning with Mercury Block-Tin Sal-Armoniack 15. Colouring Metals as Copper with Calamy into Brass and with Zink or Spelter into Gold or into Silver with Arsenick And of Iron into Copper with Hungarian Vitriol 16. Making Painters Colours by preparing of Earth Chalk and Slates as in Vmber Oker Cullen-earth c. as also out of the Calces of Lead as Ceruse and Minium by Sublimates of Mercury and Brimstone as in Vermilion by tinging of white Earths variously as in Verdeter and some of the Lakes by concrete Juyces or Faeculae as in Gambrugium Indico Pinks Sap-green and Lakes As also by Rusts as in Verdegrease c 17. The applying of these colours by the adhesion of Ox-gall as in the Marbled Paper aforesaid or by Gum water as in Limning or by clammy drying Oyls such as are the Oyls of Linseed Nuts Spike Turpentine c. 18. Watering of Tabbies 19. The last I shall name is the colouring of Wool Linnen Cotton Silk Hair Feathers Horn Leather and the Threads and Webs of them with Woods Roots Herbs Seeds Leaves Salts Limes Lixiviums Waters Heats Fermentations Macerations and other great variety of Handling An account of all which is that History of Dying we intend All that we have hitherto said being but a kind of remote and scarce pertinent Introduction thereunto I begin this History by enumerating all the several Materials and Ingredients which I understand to be or to have been used in any of the last aforementioned Colorations which I shall represent in various Methods viz. out of the Mineral Family They use Iron and Steel or what is made or comes from them in all true Blacks called Spanish Blacks though not in Flanders Blacks viz. they use Copperas Steel-filings and Slippe which is the stuff found in the Troughs of Grind-stones whereon Edge-tools have been ground They also use Pewter for Bow-dye Scarlet viz. they dissolve Bars of Pewter in the Aqua fortis they use and make also their Dying-kettles or Furnace of this Mettal Litharge is used by some though acknowledged by few for what necessary reason I cannot learn other than to add weight unto Dyed Silk Litharge being a calx of Lead one of the heaviest and most colouring Mettals I apprehend Antimony much used to the same purpose though we know there be a very tingent Sulphur in that Mineral which affordeth variety of Colour by the precipitations and other operations upon it Arsenick is used in Crimson upon pretence of giving Lustre although those who pretend not to be wanting in giving Lustre to their Silks do utterly disown the use of Arsenick Verdegrease is used by Linnen Dyers in their Yellow and
made and consists of Salt and Sulphur both Before we enter upon the Vegetable materials for Dying we may interpose this Advertisement That there are two sorts of Water used by Dyers viz. River-water and well-Well-water By the latter I mean in this place the Pump water in great Cities and Towns which is a harsh Water wherewith one can scarce wash ones hands much less scour them clean nor will Soap dissolve in it but remains in rolls and lumps moreover the Flesh boyled in it becomes hard and reddish The Springs rising out of large covered spaces such as are great Cities yield this Water as having been percolated thorow more ground than other Water and consequently been divested of its fatty earthy particles and more impregnated with saline substances in all the way it hath passed The Dyers use this Water in Reds and in other colours wanting restringency and in the Dying of Materials of the slacker Contextures as in Callico Fustian and the several species of Cotton-works This Water is naught for Blews and makes Yellows and Greens look rusty River-water is far more fat and oylie sweeter bears Soap that is Soap dissolves more easily in it rising into froth and bubbles so as the Water thickens by it This Water is used in most cases by Dyers and must be had in great quantities for washing and rinsing their Cloathes after Dying Water is called by Dyers White Liquor but there is another sort of Liquor called Liquor absolutely and that is their Bran-liquor which is one part of Bran and five of River-water boyled together an hour and put into leaden Cisterns to settle This Liquor when it turns sour is not good which sourness will be within three or four days in the Summer time Besides the uses afore-named of this Liquor I conceive it contributes something to the holding of the Colour for we know Starch which is nothing but the flower of Bran will make a clinging Paste the which will conglutinate some things though not every thing viz. Paper though neither Wood nor Mettals Now Bran-liquors are used to mealy dying Stuffs such as Mather is being the Powder or fecula of a Root So as the flower of the Bran being joyned with the Mather and made clammy and glutinous by boyling I doubt not but both sticking upon the villi of the Stuff Dyed the Mather sticks the better by reason of the starchy pastiness of the Bran-flower joyned with it Gums have been used by Dyers about Silk viz. Gum Arabick Gum Dragant Mastick and Sanguis Draconis These Gums tend little to the tincture of the said Silk no more than Gum doth in ordinary writing Ink which only gives it a consistence to stay just where the Pen delivers it without running abroad uncertainly So Gum may give the Silk a glassiness that is may make it seem finer as also stiffer so as to make one believe the said stiffness proceeded from the quantity of Silk close woven And lastly to increase weight for if an ounce of Gum worth a peny can be incorporated into a pound of Silk the said penny in the Gum produceth three shillings the price of an ounce of Silk Wherefore we shall speak of the use of each of the said four Gums rather when we treat of Sising and Stiffening than now in a Discourse of Dying where also we may speak of Honey and Molasses We refer also the Descriptions of Fullers-earth Soaps Linseed-oyl and Ox-galls unto the head of Scouring rather than to this of Dying Wines and Aqua-vitae have been used by some particular Artists but the use of them being neither constant nor certain I omit further mention of them The like I say of Wheaten-flower and Leaven Of Cummin-seed Fenugreek-seed Senna and Agarick I have as yet no satisfactory accompt Having spoken thus far of some of the Dying stuffs before I engage upon the main and speak more fully of those which have been but slightly touched upon already I shall more Synoptically here insert a Catalogue of all Dying Materials as well such as I have already treated upon as such as I intend hereafter to describe The three peculiar Ingredients for Black are Copperas filings of Steel and Slippe The Restringent binding Materials are Alder Bark Pomegranate Pills Wallnut rinds and roots Oaken Sapling Bark and Saw-dust of the same Crab-tree Bark Galls and Sumach The Salts are Allum Argol Salt-peter Sal Armoniack Pot-ashes and Stone-lime unto which Urine may be enumerated as a liquid Salt The Liquors are Well-water River-water Wine Aqua-vitae Vinegar juyce of Lemmon and Aqua-fortis There is Honey used and Molasses Ingredients of another Classis are Bran Wheaten-flower Yelks of Eggs Leaven Cummin-seed Fenugreek-seed Agarick and Senna Gums are Gum Arabick Dragant Mastick and Sanguis Draconis The Smecticks or Abstersives are Fullers-earth Soap Linseed-oyl and Ox-gall The other Metals and Minerals are Pewter Verdegrease Antimony Litharge and Arsenick But the Colorantia colorata are of three sorts viz. Blew Yellow and Red of which Logwood old Fustick and Mather are the Polychresta in the present common practices being one of each sort The Blews are Woad Indico and Logwood The Yellows are Weld Wood-wax and old Fustick as also Turmerick now seldom used The Reds are Red-wood Brazel Mather Cochineel Safflowrs Kermes-berries and Sanders the latter of which is seldom used and the Kermes not often Unto these Arnotto and young Fustick making Orange colours may be added as often used in these times In Cloth Dying wood-soot is of good use Having presented this Catalogue I come now to give or enlarge the Description and Application of some of the chief of them beginning with Copperas Copperas is the common thing us'd to dye Blacks withal and it is the salt of the Pyrites stone wherewith old Iron having been dissolved in it is incorporated The filings of Steel and such small particles of Edge-tools as are worn away upon the Grindstone commonly called Slipp is used to the same purpose in dying of Silks as was said before which I conceive to be rather to increase the weight than for any other necessity the particles of Copperas being not so heavy and crass as these are for else why should not these later-named Materials be as well used about Cloth and other cheaper Stuffs We observe That green Oaken-boards by affriction of a Saw become black and that a green sour Apple cut with a knife becomes likewise black and that the white grease wherewith Coach-wheels are anointed becomes likewise black by reason of the iron boxes wherewith the Nave is lined besides the ustulation or affriction between the Nave and the Axel-tree Moreover we observe That an Oaken stick by a violent affriction upon other wood in a Turning-Lath makes the same black From all which we may observe That the whole business of Blacking lies in the Iron as if the salt of the Pyrites-stone in Copperas served only to extract the same and withal it seems to lie in a kind of sindging and